Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof - a contender for the Palme d'Or at this year's film festival - plays out in a blaze of car wrecks, vengeance slayings and expletive-fuelled stand-offs. For a moment it appeared as though yesterday's press conference might follow suit as the iconoclastic producer Harvey Weinstein stormed on stage to defend the film against its critics.

Death Proof originally formed one half of the Grindhouse double bill that Tarantino conceived alongside fellow director and trash culture devotee Robert Rodriguez.

But following its flop release in the US this year, Weinstein ordered that the two sections - Tarantino's Death Proof and Rodriguez's Planet Terror - be expanded and re-released as separate pictures. He has been defending the decision ever since.

Weinstein's abrupt arrival appeared to be prompted in part by remarks made by Kurt Russell, who plays the role of Stuntman Mike in the film. Russell admitted he had yet to see the new version. But he added: "I'm disappointed for every audience that they won't get the full Grindhouse experience.

"For now these movies are going off on their own. But my prediction is that 20 years from now the people will want to see these movies back the way they should be. Two movies together, the complete three-and-a-half hour ride."

The producer hit back, insisting that the new versions were superior to those on offer in Grindhouse. "What you see when you see the new Planet Terror and Death Proof is Robert Rodriguez making a pure Robert Rodriguez movie and Quentin Tarantino making a pure Quentin Tarantino movie. What they did in cutting those films down for Grindhouse was a mistake. It removed the very essence of both movies."

Weinstein acknowledged that he had been accused of "sacrilege" for cutting Grindhouse in two. But he claimed he had been vindicated by his decision to expand the films. "See these movies," he said. "They will dwarf Grindhouse, believe me."

In the meantime, it was left to Tarantino to play the unlikely role of peacemaker. "Grindhouse isn't going anywhere," he assured reporters. "You will always have Grindhouse. It will be back." As yet, however, there are no plans to resuscitate the concept.

Devised as a homage to the exploitation features of the 60s and 70s, Grindhouse offered two movies for the price of one, complete with various spoof trailers for such fictitious titles as Werewolf Women of the SS. But the concept appeared to flummox audiences in the US, with reports of viewers abandoning the cinema after the first feature, apparently unaware that there was another one right behind. Others did not even get that far, put off by the prodigious running time. In the event, Grindhouse's opening weekend takings were barely half of its predicted box office haul of $20m.

Death Proof will now be released in its longer, two-hour format in the UK in September. "If you count the minutes, the movie hasn't changed that much from the Grindhouse version," the director explained. "But it's changed 180-degrees in emotional terms." The chief addition appears to be an extended lap-dancing sequence, which should appeal to die-hard fans of exploitation movies if no one else.

Tarantino is a long-time favourite of the Cannes organisers and scooped the main prize for Pulp Fiction in 1994. But most experts rate Death Proof as at best an outside bet to repeat the feat this year.

Yesterday the director appeared oddly sanguine about his chances. "Hands down my proudest moment in terms of achievement was winning the Palm d'Or for Pulp Fiction," he confessed.

"But you gotta keep it in perspective. There's only one list that's more illustrious than the list of directors who won the Palme d'Or. It's the list of directors who didn't."